Some Thoughts Heading into Election Day

As America recovers from one disaster, here’s hoping we don’t get another next week.

In these last days before the election, the consensus is a close race. Hopefully, we can avoid a repeat of 2000′s recount madness lasting into December. Although, a conclusion on December 21st would be quite amusing, given the Mayan prophecy hype. But a more stable scenario would be having this thing decided before midnight on election day. If your election lasts more than 4 hours, seek immediate medical attention.

Since the expectation is a close contest, efforts to skew the results remain a threat. Fortunately, organized voter suppression efforts have gotten enough attention to spark a backlash and actually cause increased voter determination. On the other hand, perhaps it has been quiet during early voting because the suppression efforts are focusing their resources on election day itself. Remember, if you are confronted by a frivolous challenge, always keep your cool, take the issue to the supervising election official, call your local election board AND 1-866-OUR-VOTE to report it, and do not accept a provisional ballot without an argument.

Even when voters have navigated any gauntlet of vote truthers trying to block their vote, there remains the possibility of the election results being skewed in the counting process. This ranges from the media making a premature “call” of a key state (causing a weak loser candidate to concede) to electronic ballot tampering. Currently, the mainstream (corporate) media is consigning electronic election fraud/theft to the “conspiracy theory” bucket. They are right that it would be so outrageous that it seems to fit with other topics in said bucket. But their dismissal of the idea would be highly appreciated by those who would make the attempt, since doing so would be easier in the cover of darkness provided by the media’s darkness of coverage. The mainstream (corporate) media has, at best, scoffed at those who raise the issue. In one such controversy, the elite media fails to pick up the subtle difference between saying something can happen versus saying something will happen (and people are trying to make it happen).

I can see the logic in the press looking the other way on this (for now). If a famous reporter reports on election fraud allegations, and the alleged cheater wins, guess who loses any insider access to the winning administration in 2013? It’s about putting your career ahead of the interests of the republic. So much for traditional journalism principles.